Runescape Hijinks
by Firefaerie81
Summary: A string of anonymous IM's makes Tony, Ziva, and McGee play on Runescape. Rated T just to be safe. INDEFINITE HIATUS.
1. Better than Ink Ball

Runescape Hijinks

To say that Tim McGee was bored would be an understatement. He had resorted to playing ink ball on his computer. It wasn't that hard. Draw the lines and guide the ball into the hole. Ding! Ding! Ding! He had an IM. He opened his Instant Messager and knit his eyebrows together. He didn't recognize the name: FriendOfYours. The message read:

_FriendOfYours: good evening, Timmy._

His curiosity got the better of him. He replied

_Me: Hello, stranger. Who are you?_

_ FriendOfYours: in due time, Timmy. I want you to go onto Runescape dot com._

_ Me: Why?_

_ FriendOfYours: you'll see, my pretty, you'll see._

The statement was off putting, so Tim grabbed his laptop and set up a trace. It was probably DiNozzo, but it can't hurt to get the upper hand. Maybe tease him with his computer illiteracy. Ding! Ding! Ding! Another IM.

_FriendOfYours: don't bother with a trace, Timmy._

Okay, that was a little scary. This person was inside his head. He looked back at his laptop, and the mysterious IMer was right. The trace was useless. Whoever this was, they knew their way around a computer. And they knew him. Ding! Ding! Ding!

_FriendOfYours: satisfied? Runescape. Now._

He decided to comply; maybe it would just be some prank. If it was nothing, he could at least get a good laugh at it. He typed in the URL. When the page popped up, he raised his eyebrows. An MMORPG? Ding! Ding! Ding!

_FriendOfYours: click "Play existing user." Your username is LordOfTheHardDriveTAM. Your password is 1111111._

Lord of the hard drive? If it were DiNozzo, it would have been Elf Lord or Probie or something. He typed in the name and password and hit "log in." When the screen loaded, he cringed. The graphics were mediocre. This was obviously not a game for the hardcore RPG junkies. Then he noticed his character. Low detail as it was, it looked familiar. Brown hair, green shirt, red pants. He had worn an olive green shirt and red-brown pants to work earlier. The character had a brown shield and silvery sword. He looked like a total NOOB. He fiddled with the menus and found his stats. Oh, god! He WAS a NOOB!! A yellow line of words appeared over another character's head:

**Quite a likeness, isn't it, Timmy? **Tim quickly typed in

**You're FriendOfYours?**

**Yes.**


	2. Interrupted Thoughts

A/N: I've got a dilemma here. I'm trying to decide whether I should drag Gibbs into this, or just keep it to McGee, Ziva, and Tony. Vote in the comments!!

Ziva David had nothing better to do than sit in her living room and play with her knife. The motions didn't require much concentration, so her mind wandered about. She thought about how she was going to do on her Citizenship application. She thought about how Gibbs could have possibly gotten his boat out of his basement. She thought about Ari, Tali, and… her father. She thought about Abby's latest acts of insanity. She thought about McGee and his computer, Ducky and his ramblings, Tony and-- Ding! Ding! Ding! The sound had come from her computer and completely derailed her train of thought. She walked over to her laptop and clicked the little window. It was an Instant Message from someone who called themselves FriendOfYours.

_FriendOfYours: Shalom, Ziva. _

She had never gotten an IM from anyone on the team, just E-mails. She just figured this was Tony's account or something. Why not answer? A conversation was just what she needed. She typed in

_Me: shalom, Tony. Are you bored as well?_

_ FriendOfYours: I am bored, but I'm not Tony._

_ Me: then who are you?_

_ FriendOfYours: in due time. I want you to log in to Runescape dot com_

_ Me: why? What is it?_

_ FriendOfYours: I'll leave the why for later. As for Runescape, it's just an MMORPG._

_ Me: a what?_

_ FriendOfYours: a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Think McGee's games. _

Ziva typed in the website and when the page came up, it depicted a somewhat medieval world. Perhaps it was McGee, trying to get her to play his little Elf Lord game with him. Ding! Ding! Ding!

_FriendOfYours: click the "play existing user" button. Your username is SuperLadyZAD. Your password is 2222222. _

Super lady? This person obviously thought very highly of her. What was a ZAD? It was likely just gibberish, but her grasp of American idioms and slang has never been the best. Ziva typed in the information and logged in. There were a surprising amount of players on this game. She noticed her character in the middle of the screen. The dark hair, the skin tone, the clothes. It looked similar to how she had dressed that morning. Her character held a silvery sword. A line of yellow words appeared over another character's head.

**Quite a likeness, isn't it, Ziva? **

Ziva typed in

**Who are you?**

** A FriendOfYours.**


	3. Anything but Paperwork

Tony DiNozzo was at his desk, doing paperwork. He did his best work at night. Of all varieties. Paperwork, though, that was really boring. He really hated paperwork. He would settle for any distraction, really. Ding! Ding! Ding! Speak of the devil! A distraction! It was an IM. He clicked the little window to get into the conversation. He frowned. He didn't know anyone with the screen name FriendOfYours. The message read:

_FriendOfYours: staying up late again, Tony?_

Still looking for any excuse not to do paperwork, Tony typed in

_Me: why yes I am. I'm sorry; who did you say you were?_

_ FriendOfYours: I didn't. I want you to go to Runescape dot com._

_ Me: sounds like a Lord of the Rings thing._

_ FriendOfYours: it's an MMORPG. Just go. _

He typed in the website. It was probably McGee trying to get him to play Elf Lord with him. How geeky. Well, no one else has to know. When the page loaded, the scenes looked pretty badass. It can't be all that bad. Maybe it could be a good laugh. Ding! Ding! Ding!

_FriendOfYours: click "play existing user" your username is TADtheAnnoyance. Your password is 3333333._

Annoyance? That's mean. It's gotta be McGee. Or maybe Ziva got McGee to teach her this stuff. What kind of name is TAD? Names like Weylin and Kinvaras at least sound medieval and fantasy-like, but this was nonsense. He typed in

_Me: after I log in, then what?_

_ FriendOfYours: we'll get there._

_ Me: is this you, McElf Lord?_

_ FriendOfYours: nope. Try again._

_ Me: Ziva?_

_ FriendOfYours: wrong-O_

_ Me: definitely not Ziva_

Tony typed in the username and password and logged in. There wasn't much detail, but there were a lot of players on this site. He found his little character in the middle of his screen. Huh. It looked a little like him. Yeah, the hair, the shirt, the pants. Just like how he dressed this morning. Scary. His little guy had only a dagger. How wimpy. A yellow line of words appeared over a nearby character's head.

**Quite a likeness, isn't it, Tony?**

He typed in

**You are?**

** A FriendOfYours.**

(A/N: okay people, I'm gonna hold off on uploading more chapters until I get at least 5 votes for or against bringing Gibbs in on this.)


	4. Gathering

(A/N: I have decided that with the plot I'm planning, I can't bring Gibbs in. Sorry, guys! Runescape would simply collapse and implode due to his raw badass-ness. I will, however, try and give him some sort of importance to this story.)

Just what did this FriendOfYours have in mind for Tim? He, or she, had brought him to an MMORPG called Runescape. He-or-she, let's just go with 'he' for now, had created an account for him. What did he want? Another line of yellow words popped up

**Follow me.**

Tim typed

**How do I do that?**

** Right click on me, then click 'follow'**

He did so. Hmm, so this guy's username was Firefaerie81. Sounds too girly to be a guy. So, we'll switch to 'she.' Firefaerie81 led Tim through a medieval style village. He had noticed a map in the corner of his screen. He figured that white dots were players, but what were the yellow dots? The red ones? He realized that the little white square was him, LordOfTheHardDriveTAM. Lord of the hard drive made some sort of sense. But what the heck was TAM supposed to mean? The girl led him to a bunch of rocks with stripes. Each rock had a different color of stripes on it.

**Go up to a rock by clicking in front of it. Then click on it to mine the ore inside.**

Why not? He started with an orange striped rock. After a few seconds, he had mined a copper ore. He moved on to the next rock, a gray one. This rock had tin in it. After that one, he went for a light tan stripe. As she left, Firefaerie81 said

**Just keep working on that, I'll be right back.**

This was a very interesting change of pace. Ziva had received Instant Messages from someone with the screen name FriendOfYours. This person had her log in to an account on a website called Runescape. She had been given the username SuperLadyZAD. They obviously knew her, or had at least seen her before. The little character that represented her looked uncannily like her. Right down to the clothes she wore today. Another line of yellow words appeared above FriendOfYours's head

**Follow me. **

Ziva typed in

**How?**

** Right-click on me, then click 'follow' **

She did so. She noticed that on this website, FriendOfYours had the user name Firefaerie81. Did not sound like a name a man was likely to choose. So, Ziva decided to from now on refer to FriendOfYours as a 'she.' Firefaerie81 led Ziva, or SuperLadyZAD, through a medieval style village, similar to what was depicted on the website's home page. They went through a forest like grouping of trees and came to a stop inside a ring of rocks. Each rock had a colored stripe on it.

There was already another player there. He was swinging what appeared to be a pickaxe at one of the rocks.

**SuperLadyZAD, meet LordOfTheHardDriveTAM.**

** Hey there, ZAD.**

** Hello, TAM.**

** Okay, SuperLadyZAD, click in front of a rock to walk up to it, then click on it to start mining.**

Alright, why not? She did so with a rock with a gray stripe. After a few seconds, the stripe disappeared and she received a message saying that she had mined tin. She went for another rock. Firefaerie81 left as she said

**You 2 keep at it, I'll be right back.**

Man, what's up with this? Tony was brought to an MMORPG called Runescape by someone called FriendOfYours. He-or-she brought him to Runescape through IM's. What did this guy want? Scenarios started running through his head. No, please God not that one, ugh, ooh, okay this one might not be too bad, oh that one please, uh not that one. Wow. Tony really needs to get his head out of the gutter. Again, a line of yellow words popped up over FriendOfYours's little character's head.

**Follow me**

Tony replied

**How do you suppose I should do that, good sir?**

** Uh, not a guy. Right-click me, then click follow.**

Okay so this was a chick. He did what she asked. He noticed that her name was Firefaerie81. She was definitely a lady. No guy in his right mind would name his character 'fire fairy,' fantasy spelling or no 'phantasy spelling.' He asked

**Where are we goin m'lady?**

**You'll see, my pretty, you'll see. Bonus points for the m'lady**

Firefaerie81 brought Tony to a grouping of little striped boulders. There were two little characters there already. They were swinging little pickaxes at the boulders. While they were walking, Tony started scrolling his cursor over just about everything. He noticed that when you scroll over certain things, you get options for what will happen when you click it. The option for the rocks was mining, so he clicked it. Firefaerie81 had another line of words over her head

**Alright, this is TADtheAnnoyance. TAD, this is LordOfTheHardDriveTAM and SuperLadyZAD.**

** Hello.**

** Hi**

** Now that everyone's here, I can get this started for real.**


	5. First Task

At the exact same moment, at three different parts of DC, the three teammates' computer screens slowly faded to white. The glow spread throughout the respective rooms. When the light subsided, Ziva, McGee, and Tony were _fairly_ certain they weren't in Washington, DC anymore.

"What the hell…" said Tony, or should I say, TAD. The trio looked around, and it hit them. The three shouted in unison

"We're _in_ Runescape!" There came some giggling from behind them. They turned to see a very amused little redhead. Couldn't have been a day over 17. Upon closer inspection, she was Firefaerie81.

"Welcome to Runescape. For real!" she greeted them. The trio still stood there, soaking in their environment. They had been changed into their characters. None of them recognized the others because of this.

"ZAD, TAD, TAM, you three are now The Party," Firefaerie81 said.

"A party? What fun is a party when there are only three people?" Ziva, or should I say, ZAD, asked.

"No, it's not _that_ kind of party," Tim, or should I say, TAM, explained, "She means that we'll be traveling together, doing quests, and other MMORPG stuff as a group."

"Geek," TAD quipped.

"Noob!" TAM snapped back. TAD and ZAD simply stared blankly at him. It was clear they weren't RPG veterans like he was.

"A noob," he explained, realizing his geekiness, "is a newbie, a newcomer, inexperienced, kind of like a…"

"Like a probie!" TAD exclaimed upon drawing the connection in terms. TAM smiled and said

"Yeah like a probie."

"Hmf," ZAD chuckled, "I refuse to be called 'probie', or 'noob by anyone who does not wish to die." TAD and TAM gave each other a look and silently agreed _not_ to piss her off.

"Alright, now that that's settled," Firefaerie81 interrupted, "I'm gonna send you on your first quest. Your task is simple. Find Romeo."

XxXxXxXx

"Where the hell are you?" Gibbs barked into his phone. His team was late. All of 'em. Even McGee wasn't here yet. DiNozzo's computer was still on, so he was here at some point. He checked his watch impatiently. Zero eight hundred. When they get here, he thought, I'm gonna kick all their asses. He slammed the receiver down with a growl. He looked around the empty bullpen. He picked up the phone, and, exasperated, called Vance for temporary replacements until they get here.

XxXxXxXx

The three agents-turned-characters each gave their somewhat of a mentor, FireFaerie81, varieties of confused and just weirded out looks.

"Romeo, as in 'Romeo and Juliet'?" Zad finally asked. Firefaerie81 nodded, and Tam smiled

"That _is_ simple, we just need to find a library."

"Wrong-o, Tam," Firefaerie81 cheerfully corrected, "You need to find the actual person, not the character in the book." They didn't say anything, but the way they looked at Firefaerie81 said it all: 'Say what?' So she continued

"In Runescape, there are NPC's who are from stories and stuff in the real world, but they're actual people here." Before Zad or Tad could ask, Tam explained

"NPC stands for Non Player Character. They're the characters who're built into the game instead of an account a real person plays with."

"Alrighty then," Tad announced, "Then let's find us some Star-crossed lovers!"

XxXxXxXx

(A/N: well, didn't see _that_ comin', did ya? So how will their first quest go? Will they find Romeo? We'll find out in the next chapter! Maybe.)


End file.
